The CEO Of A Private Equity Firm Invited Us To Watch Him Play Polo — And It Was Amazing

Last weekend, Clusterstock had the opportunity to watch the founder of private equity firm Solaia Capital, Michael Carrazza, play in a polo match — it's his polo match, in fact, as the team he plays on belongs to him.

This isn't uncommon.

Unless you're a pro, there's really no other way to play polo. The sport is a "culture, and a little bit of a cult sport," said Carrazza.

In fact, polo is a global community where players from all over the world travel in a circuit with their horses and gear from the sport's home base in Argentina, to Florida, the Hamptons and beyond.

We caught up with Carrazza at the Southampton Polo Club where he's a member. The club doesn't have a clubhouse, it's actually just polo fields for serious players. There, Carrazza plays tournament leagues against other members, scopes out professionals to recruit for his team, and keeps his horses during the May to October Northeast season.

He started playing over 12 years ago, when his then boss at another private equity firm and a founder of the club, encouraged him to join the club. He had never ridden a horse before.

Now he's a sponsor — or a "patron" as the Argentines say — which means he owns his own gear, and horses. For each tournament he assembles a mix of pros to play with him. In the time that he's played, Carrazza's handicap has improved from a -2 "goals" (the lowest) to 0 "goals," the general rating of sponsors. The highest ranked players in the world, of which there are only around a dozen, are ranked a 10 "goal".

"I view the success of the game as how well I play and improve," Carrazza told Business Insider. "There is no substitute for the adrenaline rush you get when you’re engaged in a play at high speed and it folds together as planned; everything has to be precisely timed."

For sponsors, being on the field is a treat, as most of them have careers that supercede the demanding sport. Carrazza himself has to juggle practicing, keeping his horses and team organized, and playing polo with running his private equity shop.